Akroma
Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Posts: 17
Location: Portugal
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 Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:08 am Post subject: Hope this inspires someone to write something.. |
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Even if it doesn't, at least it's something you don't learn everyday...
True Story Coming Through!
Now, that another book has been written about Pedro and Inês, and this time by a Spanish woman, I found myself comparing the "true love" of stories, with those events, that happened in the 14th century.
Because this story has everything to be a tale:
It's about a prince falling in love with a maiden that he should not love..
But the similarities end there. This was, after all, in real life. and nothing you imagine is stranger than the truth.
Ready for it?
Peter was the crown prince, and like all crown princes of that time, was set to marry even before he walked. Now his bride was a princess from the kingdom that would become Spain, her name was Constança. They reached the appropriate age, and she moved to her new king's court, bringing her handmaidens with her, and married a man she had never seen before. Nothing new here.
The trouble was, that among her handmaidens, there was a girl named Inês de Castro, a noble from a very influential family in Leon. And it was this lady, not the princess, that caught Pedro's heart.
Affairs were a normal thing in those times, and as long as they were discreet, no one would give them a second thought. But here is where "true love" comes in... they love each other. So much that, even though Pedro strove to keep his wife happy, she kept feeling like a mere thing to go with his title, even after giving him an heir.
But then, Constança became pregnant again. and her hope was placed on this child. She was planning to invite Inês to be the Godmother of the child. You see, by making the lover a godmother to his son, she would become family, and if they kept the affair, it would be a scandal. A boy was born and, for a time, it seemed as if the princess' plan had worked, but the child died mere days after birth.
Pedro kept going to Coimbra, where Inês lived, and they would meet in an estate that is now called Manor of Tears. A few years afterward Constança's health became fragile, and after falling to bed with illness for weeks, she died, leaving the kingdom without a princess. Some say she died because she had no will to fight for life, others that, well, those things happen.
Instead of helping his father in searching for a new bride, Pedro turned all attentions to Inês, and assumed the affair. He would spend whole weeks with her, living as if married, gave her the manor and had three children with her, and word spread that he wanted to make her his wife.
This is where politics come and wreck havoc. Inês' family was very powerful, and they were more than delighted with the turn of events. The opposite was going on in king Afonso's court. Many were opposing to such a union, for fear of the Castro's later claims to the throne.
Pedro's father, Afonso, was not a good king, nor a good person. He even set out to battle against his own father in his younger days, and only his mother (a Saint) prevented it.
Instigated by his counselors, and knowing that his son's mind was set, he allowed three of them to plot the murder of Inês.
Pedro, blissfully oblivious of anything beyond his happiness, left one morning for a hunting that would last three days. It was the perfect time, and the king knew it.
They went to Coimbra, to Inês' estate, caught her and dragged her to a secluded place. There she went through a mockery of a trial, kneeling before the king and his three councilors. Of what she said, nothing is known, except her final plea. She addressed the king and said: "If not for your own son, then for mine. The children need their mother."
To that the king had no answer, and the guilt at last crept into his heart. But it was too late to turn back, so he said nothing, and fled the place, not witnessing what he had allowed to do.
So it was that Inês de Castro was murdered, for the crime of loving and being loved by the prince.
Think this is the end? This is where things go frightening.
There is no imagining what Pedro might have felt when he came back, to find his love dead by order of his father. He would have probably killed himself, if not for three reasons: he was crown prince, he had their children to look after, and he had vengeance in his blood.
After that day, he only spoke to the king once, to ask who did it. He was met with a refusal, and war reared it's head again between a father and a son... Pedro spoke not with his father until, in the king's deathbed, he asked for forgiveness from his son, and told him the names of the three killers.
King Pedro the First became the ruler on the next day, and his first order was to chase the three men, who had fled to Leon and Castella.
Then, he proclaimed that he had married Inês in secret, named her Queen, exhumed her body, placed the crown on her head and forced the entire court to kiss the rotting corpse's hand. The body was then laid to rest in a tomb he had ordered for her, in the biggest monastery of the kingdom, that had her statue on the lid, lying with angels holding her crown above her head. That is why she is known as the Dead Queen.
And what about the killers?
Well, Pedro made alliances, broke alliances, but managed to catch two of them, for the third escaped to France.
Those two were judged in an open square where everyone saw the punishment. While alive, one had his heart ripped out from the front, and the other had his heart spooned out from his back.
Pedro ruled for 10 years, became known as the Just and the Cruel(he made the justice even for nobles and commoners), and never married again, despite the pressure from the court.
According to his will, his body was laid to rest on a tomb with a statue of him, laying with his dogs at his feet. The tomb was placed right in front of Inês', on the opposite isle of the cathedral. It was his wish that, on Judgment Day, when the dead shall rise, the first thing they see will be each other again.
Those two tombs can still be seen today, though a bit broken due to the French Invasions.
Pedro's above, Inês' below. See the broken wing on an angel? French invasions..
Well, Hope you enjoyed...and I hope it was of some use, even if just for showing ingenious ways of killing your foes.
.. mm.. spoons...
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Ah.. Quenestil.... Beats Legolas any day... |
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